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Russia Shows New Nuclear Weapon As Tensions Rise

By Stefan J. Bos, Chief International Correspondent Worthy News

MOSCOW/BUDAPEST (Worthy News) – Russia’s military prepared to launch a new nuclear supersonic weapon on Thursday as Washington-Moscow relations dropped to their lowest point since the previous Cold War.

Rocket forces loaded an intercontinental ballistic missile equipped with the nuclear-capable “Avangard” hypersonic glide vehicle into a launch silo in southern Russia, footage showed.

The Zvezda television channel, owned by the Russian defense ministry, showed a ballistic missile being transported to the site. It was then slowly raised into a vertical position and lowered into a shaft in the Orenburg region near Kazakhstan.

Russian President Vladimir Putin announced the Avangard hypersonic glide vehicle in 2018. He said it was in response to the U.S. developing a new generation of weapons and an American missile defense system that it could penetrate.

As it approaches its target, the Avangard glide vehicle detaches from the rocket and can maneuver sharply outside the trajectory of the missile, exists say.

It travels at hypersonic speeds of up to 27 times the speed of sound (about 21,000 miles per hour or 34,000 kilometers per hour). That would make Washington reachable from Russia within roughly 15 minutes.

EMPEROR ALEXANDER

Thursday’s nuclear move came after the Russian military confirmed Sunday a separate “successful test launch” of an intercontinental ballistic missile designed to carry nuclear warheads from a new nuclear submarine.

The Russian Defense Ministry said the Emperor Alexander III strategic missile cruiser fired the Bulava missile from an underwater position in Russia’s northern White Sea and hit a target in the far-eastern region of Kamchatka.

The Emperor Alexander III is one of the new Borei-class nuclear submarines that carry 16 Bulava missiles each and are intended to serve as the core naval component of the nation’s nuclear forces in the coming decades, according to sources familiar with the project.

The Russian navy currently has three Borei-class submarines in service; one more is finishing tests, and three others are under construction, the Defense Ministry said.

The reports come as tensions are soaring between Russia and the West over Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

Adding to the standoff was the decision by President Vladimir Putin this month to sign a bill revoking Russia’s ratification of a global nuclear test ban.

ESTABLISHING PARITY

The Kremlin claimed the move was needed to establish parity with the United States.

Russia and the United States, by far the biggest nuclear powers, have both expressed regret about the steady disintegration of arms-control treaties.

Both nations agreed on those accords to slow the Cold War arms race and reduce the risk of nuclear war.

But the United States, Russia, and China are developing a range of new weapons systems, including hypersonic ones, observers said.

The United States views China as its biggest competitor and Russia as its biggest nation-state threat.

Russia says the post-Cold War dominance of the United States “is crumbling” and that Washington has for years “sown chaos” worldwide while ignoring other powers

Yet U.S. President Joe Biden argues that an existential contest between democracies and autocracies will define this century.